Landau muttered one word. "Jill . . ."
Kinsman looked at the three of them. Harriman and Landau were still sitting at the dinner table, food and wine unfinished. Colt stood, legs spread slightly, up on the balls of his feet as if waiting for them to physically attack him.
"Phone," Kinsman said, more to himself than the others. Wheeling toward the desk, "Phone link . . . JFK's got a link with Alpha."
Colt shook his head. "They won't put you through. Air Force took over communications at JFK an hour before I came up here."
Kinsman slid the chair to a halt at the desk. Turning it back to face Colt he said, "Then you've got to tell them to establish contact."
"I've got to?"
"You're the only one who can, Frank."
Colt was wide-eyed now. "You're crazy, man. That's insane."
The scene on the wall screen showed Times Square and the still-growing crowd there. Harriman went over to the controls and turned the volume down.
"Frank," Kinsman said, "you're on our side. You've always been on our side. You're the only one who hasn't recognized it."
Walking stiffly, shakily, toward him, Colt answered, "I'm on my side, Chet. That's the only side there is. Numero uno."
"Bullshit. You can't live with that and we both know it. So they make you a general. It's still a dying world out there, Frank. It's dying'. Unless we do something to change it."
"By selling out the United States." 555
"By rising above it!" Kinsman shouted, and his chest flared with pain.
Colt was standing in front of his chair now, looming over him. "We know what you and De Paolo are doing—all those visitors you've had in the past couple days. It won't work, Chet. They're not gonna let it work."
Kinsman took a long shuddering breath and forced the pain down. "I don't care about that. I don't care about anything except Selene's independence. Because without our independence you'll be part of a nuclear strike that will kill all the people of the United States. There's no way around it, Frank. Either we control those satellites or there's going to be nuclear war. Which do you want?"
"I don't want either, dammit!"
His voice as hard as the braces he wore, Kinsman snapped, "It's got to be one or the other, Frank. And you have to decide which. The choice is yours. Choose."
Colt glared at him.
"Choose?"
